The baraat is expected tomorrow evening. Today, Rekha has her hands full as she juggles between managing relatives and cooking food. She goes about her day’s tasks in absolute silence and does not utter a word even when prodded to say something.

In fact, Rekha is hardly the face one would associate with a bride-to-be. No smiles, no enthusiasm, only misery writ large. Only her mehandi-stained hands give away her current special status.

Rekha is no exception in this Bhaat settlement of nearly 60-odd families who marry girls within a year of their reaching puberty. For the Bhaats, a community from Rajasthan, marrying their daughters young is a tradition and child marriage is rampant among them. They believe the earlier a daughter is married and sent to her in-laws, the more blessed is the family.

As the girl’s aunt, Kamla, puts it, “We Bhaats just beg to earn a living. Our girls never go to school and never study. Once a girl is born, our only aim is to find a suitable match for her and marry her off. The earlier it happens, the better it is.” Rekha’s father is a drunkard and her mother is the only “earning” member of the house. The family has spent nearly Rs 40,000 on the ceremonies preceding the marriage and put the total cost of the marriage at Rs 1 lakh.

Last week, 15-year-old Bateri came as a bride to another Bhaat household. She is adept in household chores and has no regrets about being married young. “I have nine brothers and sisters, of whom two are married. I am happy to be settled,” she maintains.

However, Saroj, who has now been married for over seven years and has two children, recalls, “I was barely 13 years old when my parents found the match for me in Kaithal. I didn’t even know what marriage was then. All I know is that it is our ‘dharma’ to get married and there are no two ways about that,” she says. Her husband is a daily wage earner and can hardly fend for the family.

Now 25 years old, Roshni doesn’t even remember when she was married to a labourer in Bhiwani. In the village to attend her brother’s wedding who she says is 18 years old, she maintains, “We can’t change the community we are born in. So, we just beg and enjoy whatever we get. That’s our life and we are condemned to it. There is no use cribbing because it has been that way for ages.”

Not far from their settlement, Geeta can’t stop crying over what fate has dealt out to her 11-year-old daughter. “I got her married when she was 10 years old to a 25-year-old man after my husband’s death. He promised to take her away after six years but came back within two months to stake his claim on her. I refused to send her, so he took her away forcibly. I went and got her back after a week or so. Since then, we have no news of him. He has deserted my little daughter,” rues the distraught mother, sobbing and only able to mumble a few words.

Realisation has dawned very late on her that child marriage is illegal and she can’t even approach the police to book her son-in-law.